Corpusfishing.com

Donnie

Been dealing with an infection for some time. I was released by a wound specialist 5 days ago after dealing with an infection i fought since last last summer, july & august of 2020. The thing was on my good leg, the right foot, and the abscess that formed was never bigger than a dime. I was ordered off the sand last October 28,2020 and i have not been back - though i will pretty soon. But anyway pain was intense - pushed me back into the wheelchair and i was told to keep legs elevated pretty much 24/7. This abscess would erupt with nasty - and then go down, as in looking like it was healing, then a week or 2 later, the pain would return, i would see the nasty draining again, all the while I was on antibiotics of just about every kind. After multiple doctor visits by some inexperienced doctors, my sweet sister in law, Jordan Schwirtlich, recommended Dr Mike Lovoi an internal medicine MD. He looked at it, i had already been treated for possible vibrio infection and several other things, so he took a couple of looks and sent me to Dr Bridget Sanders, a kick-butt wound specialist. She whips out the surgeon version of our rapala filet knife - and after digging around - found several bits of barnacle - , yea barnacle debris - embedded deep into my foot. Her words, "I have pulled all kinds of stuff out of you fishermen, this is the first time i have pulled out barnacle pieces." How it got in there is unknown. The best guess is this - i wear - wore - crock sandals a lot , though mostly i was barefoot on the sand these last 68 years . Sand and stuff gets inside the crocks and would irritate my foot until i finally kick them off and throw them in the truck. At some point last summer, i had what i called an athletes foot type of rash on my toes/foot - and Dr Sanders believes that the debris that was in my crocks - worked its way through an opening in the rash - and then down into my foot. One of the pieces, an elongated piece was 5 mm deep. Several more surgeries and the pieces and the other nasty was removed, some very powerful antibiotics - and it appears to be over. Her strong recommendation to me - was wear waders. I had always believed and this came from my dad's generation, that if you had a skin rash on your feet, legs, they would head down the island and wade fish in the surf, a few days later, the rash was gone. I saw my dad do this many times, and it always worked. But he never had any embedded barnacles in his flesh though. Its time for me to behave though this 8 months of fun has left me resistant to nearly all antibiotics. Point of this long post, is it pays to be diligent about any kind of wound when you spend time on the sand like some of us do and like I will again very soon.
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Don - permanent prescription of salt water therapy.

awesum · Posted: Tue May 25, 2021 7:43 am Post subject:

Wow!

Just wow ....

I hope thing s return to normal for you.

Southeast Of Disorder · Horse Mullet Joined: 31 Oct 2019 Posts: 241

Well Hell, Glad you got to the bottom of the pain and are on the way back to the sand.

Alot of nasty crap in our Gulf these days. Of course always the buried glass and nails you got to be looking for when going barefoot in the sand.

Appreciate the report.

BayFly · Posted: Tue May 25, 2021 2:47 pm Post subject:

Glad you got it worked out Donnie, and didn't loose your "good leg" or your life. I recall about 40 years ago there was a young dentist, who was very involved with the Gulf Coast Conservation Association in Houston and was an avid saltwater fisherman. He got a rash or rub on his lower leg from his boots while wade fishing. He ignored it that evening, and the next day the vibrio bacteria level of infection had gotten so intense he soon lost his leg, and finally his life a few days later. Those of us spending time in the salt have to be diligent with any infections we get, especially immediately after being in the saltwater.

ziacatcher · Posted: Tue May 25, 2021 6:48 pm Post subject:

Hey Donnie I'm glad things worked out for you. I know how much you like being on the sand and hope you get there soon

deputydawg · Posted: Tue May 25, 2021 7:40 pm Post subject:

Glad you got it fixed and hope you get back out there soon.

saltyhook · Horse Mullet Joined: 20 Feb 2008 Posts: 141

True words of caution coming from experience . Thanks for the reminder Donnie . Best of all for your health .
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Fishing is not a matter of life or death it is much more important then that !
Saltyhook

Bloodhound · Posted: Tue May 25, 2021 9:12 pm Post subject:

Congrats Donnie! That wound specialist is a fine lady for sure. Glad you got through that mess!

Rzrbak · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2021 8:04 am Post subject:

thanks for sharing....you probably saved a lot of folks from the misery of an infection or amputation....

Bobby

Donnie · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2021 9:43 am Post subject:

One of the side effects of some med i took during this is i am 'highly sensitive ' to sun and would sunburn badly - i swear its a conspiracy to keep me off the sand. But i am going to go back to some of my old ways - got the old canoe and an old kayak out, going to go fish the nueces in the shade of those large trees , staying out of the sun. Likely no jackfish, nor spanish mackeral, and swapping gators for sharks - but will be fishing where i fished a lot 60 years ago, the spillway on the nueces in the old river park, called labonte park.
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Don - permanent prescription of salt water therapy.

Towboat Trash · Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 5:45 am Post subject:

Donnie · Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:48 am Post subject:

I am looking forward to that ! One of my friends told me, he was out around the 2nd gut , 25 miles down or so, a red stuck his head out of the water and asked , "Hey, where's Donnie - we like stealing his bait." So I know they noticed.